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Hon. J. I. Klein -12- July 14, 2010 In contrast to the way the beach trip was handled at Columbia Secondary School, PS 3 had 24 adult chaperones – two veteran teachers, a student intern, an educational volunteer and 20 parents – to supervise 51 children who went on the outing to Long Beach on June 22, 2010. The students were from two classes: 2 nd and 3 rd Graders and 4 th and 5 th Graders. A Long Beach resident had informed one of the teachers that the beach had lifeguards; upon arriving there, they found that there were no lifeguards. Both teachers were experienced in water safety and consulted with the parent chaperones to decide whether to enter the water. Upon deciding to do so, they carefully selected the swimming site and had the adults construct a “cage” with their bodies to surround the students. When the teachers realized a child from another school was missing, the PS 3 students were taken out of the water. Parents who were not on the trip as chaperones were contacted and told that their children were safe. PS 3 also produced permission slips specific to the trip. These clearly indicated that the trip was to Long Beach, that transportation was by subway and LIRR, and that swimming was a specific activity planned. In addition to signing the form, the parent or guardian was asked to check whether the child had permission to ride on the subway, play on the beach, and go in the water. Swimming permission was to be given “only if able to swim.” The “Parent Notification/Consent Form for a Day Trip” also asked whether the child would bring lunch or needed a school lunch. After SCI declined to afford her criminal use immunity, through her attorney, Erin Bailey declined the opportunity to speak with investigators from this office, citing her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Through his attorney, Joseph Garnevicus declined the opportunity to speak with investigators from this office, citing his “constitutional right to not be questioned.” In a conversation with the assigned SCI investigator, the attorney explained Garnevicus was asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. On July 6, 2010, an attorney representing Nicole’s parents contacted SCI seeking information about the investigation and asking whether we would be speaking with the Suriel family. The assigned investigator offered to speak with Nicole’s parents, particularly her father whose signature appeared on the Universal forms, but the attorney was unsure when such a meeting could occur because the family was still grieving their loss. On July 8, 2010, in the presence of his attorneys, Andrew Stillman was placed under oath and gave relevant testimony for approximately two hours. He was not afforded criminal use immunity. Stillman reported that, in addition to the overnight outing to Black Rock Forest for which there was a trip specific consent form, the house of Einstein went on five Water
Hon. J. I. Klein -13- July 14, 2010 study day trips: the Croton Dam and Aqueduct, the Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) sewage treatment facility in Brooklyn, the Hydrology Lab at Barnard College, a walk to the Hudson River to obtain water samples, and a visit to the DEP education sailing vessel, The Pioneer, at South Street Seaport. There were no day trip consent forms for any of these outings. Stillman said that the specifics of the J-term itinerary were presented directly to parents during an information session. At the time, he thought the “blanket” – Universal – permission slips were sufficient. 19 Stillman testified that generally the “blanket waiver” was for trips local to the City and a separate permission form was used for trips outside the City. Stillman admitted that he did not use a separate form for the Croton trip and responded, “I’m not sure,” when asked why he had not done so. However, Stillman noted that they were back at the school before the end of the day, he had discussed the trip during the information session with parents, and he had sent an e-mail communication about the trip. Stillman acknowledged that children entered the water at the shore of the Croton River at the base of the Dam, but drew a distinction between “wading” – as he described this activity – and swimming. Regarding the Walk-A-Thon reward, Stillman said that he was not present at the assembly where Principal Maldonado-Rivera made the original offer of an incentive trip and he “did not pick up on the specifics of what promise had been made” – the trip to Orchard Beach which was in Maldonado-Rivera’s message about the Walk-A-Thon. When the house of Einstein tied with another house in raising the most money, Stillman was “caught off guard” as students started inquiring about the promised beach trip. The children told him that the principal had made the promise and Stillman said he would look into it. However, the issue drifted to the back of his mind until the Black Rock Forest trip when, on a daily basis, students asked why they had not gone to the beach. Stillman responded that he had not made that promise, but promised to look into it. The house of Einstein returned from the Black Rock Forest trip on Sunday, June 20, 2010. Stillman took a personal day on Monday, June 21, 2010, but spent part of the day doing work for the Columbia Secondary School from home. Stillman was not aware that Orchard Beach had been mentioned for the beach trip and he started looking at Long Beach because his memory was that it was “very doable from a transportation perspective.” Within the past two years, Stillman had been to Long Beach with his family on a weekend during the month of June and he remembered it as a safe and wellpopulated environment and a convenient destination by public transportation with easy lunch options. Stillman went to the City of Long Beach website and saw no indication that the beach was closed. At the LIRR website, he found group rates. Stillman reported that he expected to go on the trip. Stillman sent a reminder e-mail message to Maldonado-Rivera about his promise of a “beach” trip for raising money at the Walk-A-Thon. Stillman asked: “Can I do this tomorrow with the Water kids?” The principal responded, “call me.” Stillman 19 After the tragedy, Stillman made the “unpleasant discovery” that seven of the house of Einstein students had no Universal forms on file. He also realized that the form had a narrow scope of authorized activity.
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